From executive producers Tim Kring (Heroes) and Gideon Raff (Homeland) and premiering this fall, Dig stars Jason Isaacs (Awake) as Peter Connelly, an FBI agent stationed in Jerusalem, who, while investigating a mystery surrounding the murder of a young female archaeologist, uncovers a conspiracy 2,000 years in the making. Anne Heche costars as Lynn Monahan, Peter’s boss/sometime lover.

Appearing at the Television Critics Assoc. summer press tour in Beverly Hills on Monday, Kring asserted that Dig, unlike other so-called “limited event” series, is “a closed-ended series” that, in success, “has the possibility of taking these same characters and moving to another story.”

The initial mystery that sets Dig in motion, however, will be resolved over its six-episode run. Citing the finite Harry Potter novels as an example, Kring said, “A lot of us have been talking about ‘the power of scarcity'” and knowing that each chapter/book/episode is precious. “Television has finally seen this as a viable model.”

Kring touted Dig — which at the very least shot its pilot on location in Jerusalem — as “primarily a murder mystery” that, as it unfolds, “uncovers this deep, 2,000-year-old mystery.”

The nature of that ancient mystery portends to pack a religious punch — for as teased in the series’ first trailer and confirmed by Kring, “Within the first two minutes of the first episode you do see the birth of a red heifer,” an extremely rare event that, a bit of Googling will reveal, figures into a prophecy involving the construction of the Third Temple and return of the Messiah. Without confirming Dig‘s exact intentions for the red heifer imagery, Kring affirmed, “Clearly we are lighting a fuse.”
Watch the first trailer for Dig:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EunzMGCBY8A